m! the opera – too many cooks

Posted at March 25, 2006

M The Opera logo What did the chewing gum said to the shoe? I’m stuck on you. What is black and white and pink all over? An embarrassed zebra. What did one mountain say to the other mountain? Let’s meet in the valley. Why is Dracula so unpopular? He’s a pain in the neck. What do you call a mess of a show with good intentions? M! The Opera.

It is difficult to properly describe the show without tearing my hair out in frustration, mainly because there was too much confusion. The high and low points are too mingled — it’s like Nasi Kandar Kayu with the rice and vege and meat and mash of assorted curry all over.

Btw we made a mini video blog for this; it’s 5.50 mins, the sound has a ‘zingy’ quality to it but it’s my first vid so bleh. I used Microsoft Movie Maker, so if you have any idea on how the ‘zingy’ audio stuff could be done without (it’s not like that in the original vids) do let me know. PLEASE. You can skip the video if you want, it’s not that relevant. Yeah I know I have a round face, so bleh again.

So, M! The Opera… spoilers ahead.

The programme booklet costs RM15 so if you didn’t buy it and read a bit beforehand, you’d be quite stranded at the beginning. Like, 5 minutes into the show and you’d be going, wtf is going on?!? All I knew was that it had something to do with a designer in KL, there would be some fashion thing going on, there would be some love stuff in it and the poster says ‘murder’ so I guess that would happen as well.

So what happened was, the show actually started with our lead actor M (Khir Rahman, the dude from Iklim) in distress, distraught by the lack of inspiration for his next line bla bla la di la da. It would have been a good beginning for a movie, but for a live musical, it was quite confusing (ie, read prior paragraph). Then there was a bit of flashback of M’s past, how his mother Kak Ros (quite a superb performance by Maizurah Hamzah) was a darn good seamstress, who gave birth to an illegitimate son then died. The illegitimate son was born with a needle which was given to M, who gave it to his childhood friend Sepi (Doreen Tang) for safekeeping.

Then there was some dude who came out in Japanese clothing and began singing in Japanese. Later I realised from the programme booklet that it was a scene when M went to Tokyo and became an apprentice to a master designer.

M returned to KL and became a big hit in the fashion world. Everyone loved him. Everyone wanted a piece of him. Sepi was by his side all the way, until M publicly flirted with Dominique Soong (Paula Malai Ali), the IT fashion chick.

Sepi was of course, pissed off and went off with Kerabat (George Chan), an up and coming edgy designer. She gave him M’s needle. M then returned to Sepi and asked her to marry him. M also asked Kerabat to join him in a partnership. Both agreed.

Unknown to Sepi and M, Kerabat was full of jealousy and vengeance and decided to use the needle against M. He made a wedding suit for M, which the latter accepted gratefully and wore to his wedding. Somehow the suit was poisoned; as M was dying, Kerabat realised that M was his half-brother (Kerabat being the illegimate son who was given away at birth, and who was the true owner of the needle) and was overcome by grief. M then died in Sepi’s arms, who was desolate.

Cast of M: The Opera

The storyline, when you come to think of it later, was really quite beautiful. Jit Murad concocted an artistic high-pace drama in a scene he would be familiar with; the fast-moving fashion world and its bitchiness and the old ‘everybody has to come from somewhere’ premise. The execution of the storyline however, was draggy and I’m sorry to say, a bit of a mess. Not everyone would be quick to catch on the what who when how. Myself, of course me being bestowed with superior understanding quickly glanced through the booklet during the intermission.

Since it is a half musical half opera, it would be all sing-song. Therein lies the problem. As this was my second time at the Istana Budaya (the first time was for PGL The Musical) I realised that there was a problem with sound. Oh not the arranging and all that, more like the execution and delivery of sound was a tad muffled and… well you may have difficulty in trying to understand what they were singing about, and the translation board isn’t going to be of any help since it is often out of time and not really accurate. It’s a pity for some of the performers have really good and powerful voices, but something just drowned them out. Unless of course you do a Stephen Rahman-Hughes solo — that would be impossible to drown out.

Speaking of singers, Doreen Tang has an exceptionally powerful soprano voice. George Chan stood out — with pecs like those, I’d eat sheep’s brains if he’d dance for me like he did in the show. I felt that M was miscasted as Khir Rahman seemed out of place (luckily not so much out of tune but nothing to shout about), and there was more chemistry between Sepi and Kerabat than Sepi and M. Maybe it was intended to be that way, who knows?

And the rest of the cast and ensemble — they were actually very very good, singing and dancing and all. The problem was that there was always too many of them at one time. Individually or in a small group of three or four, they were very good. However there was two or three groups in too many scenes and it was difficult to focus especially if the lead performer didn’t really have stage presence.

And as mentioned, the whole thing just dragged on for a bit. The good news is, the second half of the show was better the first half. The bad news is, you have to get through the first half to enjoy the second half. I noticed some people in the audience didn’t return after the intermission.

What else to watch out for? Hmmm.. the costumes, definitely. Some of Malaysia’s famed designers such as Bernard Chandran, Bill Keith and Tom Abang Saufi contributed to the costumes and they were very interesting to see. Especially the use of batik in one of M’s show — apparently M! The Opera was dedicated to Allahyarham Datin Paduka Seri Endon Mahmood (Pak Lah’s late wife) and if she were here today, I bet she’d be really pleased with all the batik used. I like.

Overall M! The Opera was a tad too ambitious and didn’t quite deliver. Nevertheless you’d appreciate the individuals who shine through and through, and maybe overlook the almost-disastrous group effort when it all comes together in one big mash. Like any live shows, it’d improve in time and I have no doubt it’d be better. You can get ticket and show info here.

Thanks to Janet Lee for the invites — you were brilliant!

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